Exploring from

If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light

Kim Cho-yeop

Find similar books by

Combine common axes

Similar in premise + setting

These books are ranked using the premise + setting labels extracted for If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Premise labels used: future futures, humanity and technology, first contact, space travel, alien encounter, mind upload, digital afterlife, ethics of technology, women-centered SF, marginalized perspectives

Setting labels used: near future, distant future, space station, other planets, Earth, utopian society, dystopian society, advanced technology, posthuman future, alternative future

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their premise + setting embeddings are close.

Exclude same author

Max ratings No limit

Beyond the Rift

Peter Watts · 2013 · Rifters

A hard-SF short story collection where alien POVs, AI, faith, and bleak futures probe what makes us human.

Why this is here

Premise labels: first contact · alien perspective · artificial intelligence · near future · dystopian futures · human-machine boundary · religion and technology · deep sea · space travel · biological enhancement · reality manipulation · moral judgment

Setting labels: outer space · Antarctica · deep sea · undersea habitat · near future · dystopian future · alternate reality · religious future · spacefaring civilization · Dyson sphere · post-human future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1040

Continue from here

Accelerando

Charles Stross · 2005

Three generations of one family navigate an accelerating posthuman future as AI, nanotech, and the Singularity reshape humanity.

Why this is here

Premise labels: technological singularity · posthuman future · AI takeover · mind uploading · solar system scale · family saga · venture altruism · post-scarcity economy · humanity under pressure · alien contact · distributed intelligence · runaway innovation

Setting labels: near future · post-singularity · solar system · outer system · Saturn · Jupiter moon · Earth · virtual worlds · cyberspace · posthuman civilization · spacefaring future · ultra-capitalist future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1180

Continue from here

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever

James Tiptree Jr. · 2004

A landmark collection of dark, idea-rich SF stories probing gender, death, alien contact, and human limits.

Why this is here

Premise labels: gender politics · alien contact · first contact · time travel · cyberpunk · post-apocalypse · space travel · future society · social critique · feminist SF

Setting labels: spacefaring future · far future · alien worlds · Earth future · colonized worlds · post-apocalyptic world · alternate reality · near-future media world · cold universe · technological society

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1211

Continue from here

Diaspora

Greg Egan · 2000

A posthuman software mind joins a galaxy-spanning search after a cosmic disaster threatens the future of intelligence.

Why this is here

Premise labels: posthuman future · digital consciousness · human diversification · cosmic catastrophe · interstellar search · alien contact · survival quest

Setting labels: far future · posthuman society · solar system · interstellar space · multiverse · virtual reality · digital civilization · post-Earth

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1237

Continue from here

Echopraxia

Peter Watts · 2014 · Firefall

A baseline biologist is pulled into a posthuman pilgrimage toward the sun, where faith, free will, and alien contact collide.

Why this is here

Premise labels: posthumanism · first contact · space journey · baseline human · alien signal · religion and science · free will · consciousness · hive mind · genetic engineering

Setting labels: near future · late 21st century · 22nd century · Earth · Oregon desert · deep space · Solar System · spaceship · monastery · dystopian future · posthuman future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1277

Continue from here

Your Utopia

Bora Chung · 2024

Eight Korean sci-fi stories explore AI, immortality, grief, and social injustice in bleak, wry near-future worlds.

Why this is here

Premise labels: immortality research · AI emotions · posthuman survival · cannibalism pandemic · dystopian futures · late capitalism · technology and society · human-machine relations · environmental collapse

Setting labels: near future · distant future · post-apocalyptic · posthuman · dystopian · spacefaring · corporate setting · urban apartment building · desolate planet

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1286

Continue from here

Nine Tomorrows

Isaac Asimov · 1987

Nine near-future stories explore AI, prediction, math, work, and humanity’s changing place in a technological future.

Why this is here

Premise labels: near future · future scenarios · speculative ideas · technological change · humanity and technology

Setting labels: future · near future · Cold War era future · spacefaring future · Earth · other planets · interplanetary

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1287

Continue from here

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories

Ken Liu · 2020

A linked speculative-fiction collection on memory, identity, technology, and family, spanning history, futures, and the Singularity.

Why this is here

Premise labels: speculative futures · uploaded consciousness · posthumanism · family bonds · history and heritage · technology and society · alien contact · war and displacement · climate change · internet toxicity · art and AI · immigrant experience

Setting labels: near future · far future · post-singularity · post-apocalyptic · alternate future · historical fiction · World War II · alien planet · virtual world · digital world · contemporary internet

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1346

Continue from here

Terminal Boredom: Stories

Izumi Suzuki · 2021

Seven bleak, prescient sci-fi stories trace alienation, gender, and numbness in futures that feel eerily present.

Why this is here

Premise labels: dystopian future · post-apocalyptic society · gender politics · population control · screen addiction · alienation · technological mediation · interplanetary politics · human drift · social collapse

Setting labels: near future · post-apocalyptic · dystopian · Tokyo · space colonization · interplanetary · alien worlds · matriarchal society · future Earth · cybernetic future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1353

Continue from here

Toward Eternity

Anton Hur · 2024

A near-future nanotech cure for cancer opens into centuries of AI, poetry, and posthuman questions about being human.

Why this is here

Premise labels: near future · nanotechnology · artificial intelligence · cancer cure · immortality · identity crisis · personhood · humanity question · AI learns poetry · memory transfer · body replacement · posthuman future

Setting labels: near future · far future · distant future · global · South Africa · Antarctica · Korea · Portugal · interstellar · posthuman · dystopian future · speculative future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1369

Continue from here

Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories

qntm, Sam Hughes · 2022

A compact collection of experimental SF stories probing AI, uploads, simulation, and technological dread.

Why this is here

Premise labels: thought experiments · AI ethics · uploaded minds · brain scanning · sentience simulation · self-driving cars · first contact · contact with unknown intelligence · simulated reality · mind uploading · existential risk · humanity at technological extremes · hypercomputer · interdimensional waste dumping · digital immortality

Setting labels: near future · far future · digital future · spacefaring future · alternate reality · simulated worlds · outer space · interdimensional space · corporate tech world · online culture · AI-mediated setting · posthuman setting · planetary exploration

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1397

Continue from here

Life Ever After

Carla Grauls · 2019

In a future of AI upgrades and long life, two lovers question how much of themselves they can keep intact.

Why this is here

Premise labels: technology and humanity · AI enhancement · cyborg future · immortality · memory manipulation · autonomy vs control · relationship under augmentation · ethical dilemma

Setting labels: future city · tech city · dystopian future · near future · high-tech society · AI-integrated world · clinic setting · transhuman future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1423

Continue from here